Category Archives: jewellery

Really, this isn’t a ground breaking comment to make to say that we ALL must hate junk mail. Don’t we? Please say we do. The whole idea of junk mail is vile and intrusive. The amount of times I’ve actually caught someone about to post a pizza menu through my letter box and I’ve taken it from them and posted it straight into my recycling bin.

I do have a confession to make however. As a teenager I used to deliver junk mail to raise money for my summer holidays. My aunty used to do it as a living, and over the summer holidays I’d be given my own round to do. It was back-breaking work for very little money. And now I feel very bad for filling peoples’ boxes with these pieces of trash – however – when one is a teenager one needs to make money!

Recently we’ve had a marked increase in the amount of menus we get through our box – pizza menus generally make me feel quite unwell (the photographs are most unappetising) and I think we’ve tried every Indian and Chinese menu with little excitement or impression. Thankfully one of our cats thinks he’s a dog and tends to ‘collect’ the junk mail, acting as our own personal shredder 🙂

So in my usual manner I’ve been looking for things to do with junk mail. For myself, I’ve only managed collages:

Unfortunately I can’t post a lot of the photos of what people have done with junk mail – which I understand ENTIRELY. So go to Gallery 1 on Flickr – for wonderful ideas on what to do with junk – including obligatory jewellery as well as journals, a quilt and bowls 🙂

I intend to add to this – however I’m still feeling pretty rough with flu – haven’t slept properly for 4 nights now. So I’ll finish this later 🙂

EDIT:

Ok … it’s now a much more reasonable time and although I’m in bed feeling like poo I thought I’d finish this entry properly as there are too many talented people out there who need their junk repurposing pimped 🙂

I’ve never thought of recycling paper to create a paper product designed to be written/ drawn on – however now – I can see the joy of using recycled junk mail to create journals, tags, envelopes and other stationary.

This is a beautifully designed journal – simple yet clean and minimal. This recycler has a whole set of journals created from upcycled materials and is a real inspiration to this lady sitting at her laptop typing this. You really have NO IDEA how many journals and notebooks I have – and to know that there is a way of creating my own notebooks out of all that crap that gets shoved through my letter box is an awesome idea.

I’m going to hunt out the materials needed and start creating my own journals – oh dear – another idea!

You can also see Lootsvele’s upcycled journals here – I love the use of envelopes to create spaces to stash your tickets etc. I think these would make fantastic presents.

eco-monster seems to be a real star of recycling materials – I’m in love with so many of her ideas – they’re very pretty and pastel-coloured – not very

Madhatrk’s packaging is very special – takes a bit of energy to make by the looks of things (see the tutorial here) however the final result is REALLY effective.

Junk mail = style

Of course junk mail can be turned into clothes and jewellery – what made you think that it couldn’t?:

Origami star earrings from upcycled junk mail etc.

home ECOnomics - paper jewellery

Quilling can be turned into jewellery

cute and simple

As you can see from this very small selection – junk mail can be used for some wonderful accessories – when with shops like Accessorize actually start using recycled products rather than creating jewellery that LOOKS as though it’s recycled?

Finally – for now (there will be more to come – I’m quite aware that with every blog post – the more I search – the more I find worth mentioning and pimping 🙂 ) I wanted to leave you with an amazing piece of wearable art that an ex-student of mine created for a Metro Newspaper competition. However I can’t find the image of the dress anywhere on the internet. She created it from many copies of Metros (a free newspaper that tends to fill train carriages), folding hundreds of origami cranes for the skirt.

When I find the image I will post it here – until then here’s her profile on Untold. Believe me – she will be a force to be reckoned with – winning Young Designer of the Year aged just 14!

Like a lot of people who work with fabric I have a lot of bits left over. And being the woman that I am I obviously don’t throw them away. Some find their way onto my ever growing ‘crazy patchwork’ bag – other stay sitting in a bag waiting to be turned into something.

Recently when I couldn’t sleep one morning I found a tutorial on making fabric beads – and started playing. I’m not very good at following tutorials and started kind of making up my own fabric bead design. The final result was this:

old dressing gown becomes upcycled necklace

I’m not entirely satisfied with it – I think it might need a lot more work – however I have a lot of other beads that I’ve made some I’m going to try some different designs. I also think that I should add some more beads to the top right hand side (where I’ve already started adding beads) as a focus.

In the meantime, here are some wonderfully exciting upcycled/ repurposed/ recycled fabric jewellery pieces that really inspire me to be more creative.

Fabric bracelet by Little Miss Crafty

This little bracelet seems so simple yet so cute and fluffy. I love the colours (although they’re not the type I’d wear) and it just is SO yummy. Makes me want to go out and make my own cute little fluffy bracelet.

I’m in love with this wonderful piece. It has its roots in vintage style and is a real focus piece.

Absinthe and Orange

Absinthe and Orange creates such beauty out of repurposed material and clothing. Again, like a lot of things I love, the colours aren’t something I ever really wear, however to own a piece like this and have an excuse to build an outfit around them would be something too good to miss! With fabric jewellery like this you KNOW that everyone will keep looking at it and noticing new things that make up this beautiful design.

Sonya's Boutique

Sonya’s fabric necklaces are real focus pieces that combine strong colour palettes and inspired designs. Check out her etsy store – I cannot believe how cheaply she sells her work! Honestly – it’s worth more than this! Once I can get properly onto Etsy (it’s playing up for me at the moment) I’m going to purchase one of her pieces before prices sky rocket!

I love her combinations of bones and lace – and I love the way in which her pieces aren’t just ‘focus’ pieces – they make you sit up and stare! You can’t stop looking and if you’re me – you can’t stop wanting!

Really – how can you NOT be inspired by these wonderful women’s designs?

Here are some tutorials – often showing you the steps for building up your designs:

Back again – thought I’d continue the blog (curtailed this morning because I really felt awful – was awake at 3:30am with my cold playing up).

So far, we have bags and art. Of COURSE there is way more that you can do with books.

Turn books into jewellery

I LOVE jewellery – as a girlie – I really don’t think one can have too many accessories. Especially if they aren’t from Primarni (!) or Claire’s Accessories – but are made from sustainable sources – and if possible – using your own fair hands. However, if you don’t feel that you have the ability to create your own beautiful jewellery – I’m sure that these wonderful women would be willing to sell you some of their work:

Effemeral Life

Liz Hamman is a mixed media artist from Manchester – and I am in total awe of her work. She doesn’t appear to have a store although you can contact her here

Her work is a mixture of origami and a vivid imagination. Obviously with paper – it has ephemeral nature – is it really meant to last? It’s fragile and so delicate.

I find it hard to actually pick a piece of her work to choose as my favourite – so I’m going to link to her slideshow here. Goggle her innovation and let your imagination FLY!

Betty Pepper

Betty Pepper’s designs are stunning – I would love to be able to buy just one piece of this beautiful work. I think what makes her jewellery even more special is the way that she presents it. Showing the necklaces simply falling from the books they were made from.

“Betty calls the books orphans and she finds them in charity shops already carrying their own secret stories, looking for new homes. The jewellery finds solace in the books as it too has a story attached to it, who it belonged to, when it was given, why… Betty likes to use second hand textile in her work as she says it has a tactile, human quality and, like the books, it carries scents and stories, wears and fades like memories.”

Ann Martin is a quilling expert – and she creates some beautiful pieces. She essentially uses quilling paper – however I wonder to myself whether it’s possible to use paper from books. The results may not be as delicate or as uniform as hers but it could be worth trying. You can find the tutorial here.

And finally Frucci Designs. I can’t post the images here but I urge you to visit her blog and LOVE her designs. They are truly truly beautiful.

Hopefully this has been interesting. There are more ideas coming up but I don’t want to overload you!

A few months ago one of my favourite markets closed down. Greenwich is renowned for it’s craft market – however I was fonder of the second hand stalls that occupied the less ‘pretty’ part of the market. Then the area was closed down – probably to make way for flats or office blocks knowing this current climate. My husband and I went to the market on the last day – we hadn’t been there for ages. I was at the beginning of my obsession with crafting and sewing. One of the stalls was almost giving their stuff away – and I asked how much their buttons would be. Instead of me going through them to find my faves, he offered me the whole lot for £10. I jumped at the chance and have ended up with boxes full of buttons (as well as various other trinkets that were hidden in with them):

However – once you own that many buttons you realise you need to make something with them. I’ve used them to decorate my bags and various bits and bobs. I then thought about jewelry after seeing a colleague’s necklace. So I started looking up button jewellery. I’m still to make something of any worth – but I thought I’d share with you some of my favourite upcycled button beauties 🙂

First up is Lorimarsha – honestly – I think this talented woman will appear in many of my blog posts. I love the boldness and brightness of her colourful designs. She truly is an amazing crafter – click on the photos to take you to her etsy store.

Lorimarsha - original bakelite jewelry

How cute are these bracelets? Wonderfully bright colours and I love the addition of the beads at the end.

Lorimarsha original bakelite designs

I’m in love with these rings too – so bold and exciting. If only I didn’t have such horrible stubby fingers (I’m not a huge fan of my hands) I’d be buying these straight away!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH … I have totally fallen in love with the beautiful vintage buttons used by Buttonz – honestly – the Blondie is the most beautiful button bracelet I’ve ever seen:

Blondie

I want want want want! 🙂

Upcycling at its best I think – to make buttons look this classy is so awesome. Most of the time when you use buttons they can look quirky and kitschy – and there is NOTHING wrong with that – however I believe that Buttonz produces jewellery that is classy and classic – in keeping with their vintage feel.